The Spiritual Tasks of the Homemaker

Manfred Schmidt-Brabant helped organize the first-ever Conference for Homemakers at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. This book presents the three lectures he delivered at this gathering which drew thousands from all over the world (instead of the hundreds that were expected), eager to come together to consider a fundamental aspect of human life that has become everywhere neglected.

I am so grateful that he honored homemaking as the life-giving art that it is – especially when I consider that even now, at a time when I would have thought we’d all “know better,” such honor is rarely bestowed upon those who truly rock the cradle of the world. I find his lectures fascinating in their connections of daily life with cosmic reality. I also deeply appreciate the practicality of his answers in the question session at the end and his emphasis on understanding as the foundation for creating today’s homes.

This is a wonderful antidote to our modern, pedestrian view of homemaking (“Ward, I’m worried about the Beaver.”) – an invitation to crown our homes with grace and gratitude.

1 Review

This little book is powerful, and infinitely re-readable. Taken from a series of lectures, the tone is colloquial, but the content is deep in meaning. It’s another book for those of us homemakers who may sometimes allow the world to infringe, and sometimes worry that we aren’t doing something meaningful. This work assures us that we are, and also offers some good, practical advice. I dog-eared so many pages in my personal copy, I can hardly quote all of the things I’d like to, otherwise I’d be duplicating the book, and I’m pretty sure that’s against copyright laws. One I would like to leave you with though: “’Learn to distinguish between the essential and the inessential.’ This thought meets exactly the problem of the homemaker—all day long essential and inessential things are mixed into her day. If the homemaker reminds herself daily of what is essential, then a force will grow within her, a force organ. This force will enable her to take up the essential elements in the course of the day while leaving inessentials behind.” Powerful stuff, right?